ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 Review

ATI (the graphics division of AMD) first released its new RV770 graphics processor back in June with the introduction of the Radeon HD 4850 and Radeon HD 4870. Both of these are excellent products—they’re some of the best graphics cards we’ve seen in a long time, and deliver so much bang-for-the-buck that Nvidia has had to drastically reduce prices on its products to remain competitive, a move which Wall Street didn’t like very much.

Whatever you may say about the Radeon 4800 series, this much is true: ATI was competing in the mid-range and performance graphics segments, with no product for the truly high-end (defined by “$400 and up”). At the time of the 4800 series launch, ATI laid out its new strategy: no more really big GPUs designed only to be used in those high-end products. Instead, it will stick two modestly-sized GPUs on a single card, similar to the Radeon HD 3870 X2 to address that market.

There’s nothing inherently good or bad about this strategy. It is a series of tradeoffs like any other. ATI has been working hard on their multi-GPU scaling and compatibility, with nice improvements in both areas delivered in drivers earlier this year. Now that the Radeon HD 4870 X2 is finally here, it’s time to put ATI’s new strategy to the test. Is two RV770 GPUs on a single card the best way to cater to the high-end market? Continued…

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